An Example

Please play my example video. I had to cut this down to under 10 minutes to meet YouTube's requirements. You can watch the full thing here. It is in Ogg/Theora format and is about 430MB. If you don't have an Ogg player, look here.

I cannot tell you how many times Wes has saved my behind. -Chris Fauerbach

Linux: Amatuer to Admin

For years, I've been doing GNU/Linux administration both personally and professionally. During that time, dozens of people have asked me how I learned to do it. Did I go to school? How much did it cost? Most importantly, Can you teach me? Yes! I believe that I can. I have developed a series of high-quality, informative "screencasts" to take the computer hobbyist or IT professional with no Linux experience from

Amatuer to Administrator!

Amatuer to (System) Administrator is finally ready for sale. A ton of work went into production, including three complete from-scratch restarts, about 50 hours of screencasting and editing, and so many Wiki lists that I've lost count. Please check out the Frequently Asked Questions for answers to the most common questions and concerns I have heard.

Why Linux Training?

Linux is growing fast in both corporate and personal usage. If you cruise through postings at CareerBuilder, Monster, or any of the other "job" sites, you'll find plenty of postings looking for Linux experience. Some of them are Windows-centric with "Linux experience nice, but not neccesary." Others are six-figure Linux administration jobs requiring years of experience. Linux, and by extension Unix, skills are always in demand. My goal is to teach a new generation of administrators about Linux from installation to a useful server.

Why videos?

In my career, I've read a lot of help files, a lot of web sites, and a lot of archived emails. Those sorts of things are great for people who have an idea of what they're looking for already. But what if you want to run a Linux server, with zero knowledge, from scratch? In interacting with new Admins and users alike, I've come to the conclusion that video screencasts are the best method to build initial competence.

You can rewind and replay critical sections as many times as you need to
Annotations add extra information on top of basic voiceovers
The output that you should expect to see on your screen is visable right away on the example screen

When I was recording the videos, my goal was to not only give exact commands for users to mimic, but to also create a curious environment. Every command that I enter or file that I reference I expect the end user to eventually branch off with and learn more on their own. This combination of visual and experimental learning forms a powerful combination that Wiki articles and HOWTOs can't provide.